Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/453

 CHINA ests line the shores. The waters of the Yang- tse and Yellow rivers are charged with earth and give a distinct muddy color to the sea for many miles from the land, for the whole dis- tance from the Chusan archipelago to the Shan- tung promontory, and to a considerable part of the gulf of Pechili. The numerous head- lands, islands, and inlets of the 8. E. coast af- ford many places of refuge for shipping, and the harbors of Hong Kong and Amoy are especial- ly commodious and safe. Swatow, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai cannot be considered first-class harbors. Each is situated upon a navigable stream, but the approaches are diffi- cult and the depth of water is insufficient. There are several fine harbors on the coast of Shantung, of which Che-foo is the best known. Tientsin, the port of Peking, is 50 m. from the sea, and can be reached by vessels of not more than 1,000 tons burden. The harbor of Newchwang is similarly defective, but Ta- lienwan bay offers an excellent harbor for Mantchooria'. The access to this port from the land side is difficult, but it could be easily reached by a railway. The shores of Formosa and Hainan are rugged, and the ports are very inferior. Tientsin and Newchwang are closed by ice three months in the year. The extent of China is so great and its topography so va- ried that it would be difficult to describe its surface as a whole. The following divisions are natural ones, and will assist to give a clearer view of the physical features of the empire than would be readily obtained by a study of its several arbitrary political divisions. 1. The mountainous region of the southeast is a dis- trict 1,000 m. long and 400 m. broad. It in- cludes the southern and eastern portions of Kwangsi and Hunan, the whole of Kwang- tung, Fokien, Chekiang, and Kiangsi, and the southernmost parts of Nganhwui. The high- lands touch the coast everywhere south of Hangchow bay, and in the north occasionally reach the line of the Yangtse between the Tungting lake and Chinkiang. Throughout this area of more than 300,000 sq. m. there is no table land, no extensive plain, and no moun- tain chain conspicuous by reason of altitude or continuity. The mountains have a trend which corresponds with the general direction of the coast. The ranges are short and irregu- lar, and permit the streams which drain suc- cessive depressions to break through and to reach the coast without spreading into lakes. These hundreds of streams are the highways of this part of China. No one of them, except- ing the West river, which debouches near Can- ton, is fit for steam navigation for any great distance. In nearly all, even near the coast, exist dangerous rocks and shallows which ren- der necessary the transshipment of produce and merchandise in transit. But the Chinese, with characteristic patience and a lack of pub- lic spirit apparently equally characteristic, con- tinue to use these streams, making no efforts to improve them. They are the only traffic courses, excepting a few portages, such as those through the Chiting pass between Kwangtung and Hunan ; the Mei-ling, between Kwang- tung and Kiangsi ; and the foot paths along which coolies carry burdens. 2. In striking contrast to this broken region is the level dis- trict which stretches away from the Hang- chow bay to the mountains of Liautung. This district, known as the great plain, has for its northern boundary, beginning at the gulf of Liautung in lat. 40, the great wall, the inner course of which it follows in a curving line to about Ion. 114. Its western boundary strikes thence due S. to the Yellow river, thence S. E. to the Yangtse near Nganking, and thence E to Hangchow, which it reaches in lat. 30 30'. The mountainous part of the Shantung prov- ince cuts down into the centre of the plain, and detached mountains near Nanking and Chin- kiang break in upon it to a limited extent. 3. West of the great plain is a second broken re- gion, which may be styled the mineral region of China. It lies south of Inner Mongolia, and com- prises the provinces of Shansi and Shensi, the N. part of Hunan, and the E. of Kansuh. 4. South of the mineral region is the lake dis- trict or central China. It embraces the whole of the province of Hupeh, the S. W. part of Honan, and the N. of Hunan. It is crossed by the Yangtse, and its northern part is drained by the Han and its affluents. Lakes form so prominent a feature of this region that the name Hu-kwang, meaning broad lakes, is applied by the Chinese to the provinces of Hunan and Hupeh. 5. Szechuen is a prov- ince of such extent, population, and wealth that it may be considered a fifth natural divi- sion of the empire. It is a great inland district, bounded by mountains, but in the main made up of plains and gently undulating lands. Its population was set down in 1812 at 27,000,000, and as it has escaped the devastations of civil war it is probably much greater now. It is supplied by its own productions with the necessaries and even the luxuries demanded by the population. Its articles of export are of a nature to admit of easy transportation. Few regions of the earth are so favored as this. 6. The southwestern provinces are Yun- nan and Kweichow. They are generally rough and mountainous, but in Yunnan there are some extensive table lands and some low-lying plains marked by lakes. This region is far more tropical in the nature of its climate and productions than the district east of it. The Chinese consider it unhealthy. They have done less here than elsewhere in China proper to subject the soil to tillage, and in conse- quence of this fact, and of the disturbed con- dition of the region owing to the Mohammedan and other troubles, it is now in great part an abandoned jungle. The mountains of China hem in her territory on the north. In the east they separate the great plain from the eleva- ted lands of Mantchooria and Mongolia. Fur- ther west taking the direction from N. E. to